This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • The IVAW Board Series: Seth Manzel

    When I first started reading about Seth Manzel, I thought I was going to have to write a bio like TSO wrote yesterday for Cameron White. Manzel is one of the few who actually served in Iraq (2004-2005) and he’d served in an old regiment of mine (the 5th Infantry). So I settled in for writing a tongue bath. But I did my research.

    I found him quoted in Dahr Jamail’s new book “The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan” along side Geoffry Millard:

    “So we would go and drop the dismounted people at some house with an air conditioner, where they would kick in a door and hang out and drink tea with those people, while we would proceed with the vehicles and bide time out of visible range.”

    He founded the “Coffee Strong” coffee shop outside of Fort Lewis, WA and he’s a member of Port Militarization Resistance. Under contacts and influence he wrote:
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  • The IVAW Board Series; Michael Kindlinger

    In our continuing series of the prospective members of the IVAW Board of Directors, I’d like you to meet Michael “Trey” Kindlinger. For military service, Kindlinger says he spent nine years in the Navy. Then, suddenly, in 2003 (after said nine years) he discovered he’s a conscientious objector – he claims it’s because of his faith. I can accept that.

    Kindinger gets out of the Navy – but his wife is still on active duty. So, he can’t serve because of his faith, but he doesn’t mind living off the money that comes from his wife’s service. I don’t know, to me that seems a bit hypocritical.

    In the bio, he lists other organizations to which he belongs;

    9. Other organizations in which you have membership: VFP, MFSO, ISO,

    Geezers for Sitting on our Hands, that Military Families Speak Out organization which was founded by Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessen, both former members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the International Socialist Organization. According to Discover the Network, this is the ISO, which we’ve mentioned often in regards to IVAW;

    Evoking the Communist tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to “organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation.” The chief source of this oppression and exploitation, in ISO’s view, is capitalism — whose inevitable by-products are poverty, environmental degradation, war, famine, and most other ills that plague humanity. ISO places the blame for international strife largely on the United States, and more specifically the Republican Party….

    Oh, not coincidently, the VFP and MFSO are also planning assemblies in College Park, MD the same weekend as the IVAW Convention.

    But back to Kindlinger, here’s his vision of the organization;

    We are an effective organization in organizing the antiwar community; I feel that we’ve been afraid to seize that mantle and should now take that burden and help reinvigorate the antiwar movement.

    We MUST help end the illegal and immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. If necessary, we then must take up the issues of Iran, Palestine, and Pakistan. These, I believe, are all inter-connected and must be dealt with if we have any hope of effecting change we can ALL believe in.

    I went through his entire application, and that pretty much sums up the whole thing. Nothing about outreach to help veterans of the wars, nothing about helping members – it’s all about organizing and fund raising. Another member of the IVAW, candidate for the board who never saw Iraq or Afghanistan who is a member of the ISO and is more worried about the “Against the War” part more than the “Iraq Veterans” part.

  • The IVAW Board series; TJ Buonomo

    As TSO wrote last night, we’ve come into possession of the actual applications for the eight folks who endeavor to occupy those seats around the IVAW Board of Directors table. And a stellar group they are. Since there’s eight of them, we’ve decided to split them up between us and hit you with one every day for the next week or so.

    Army Sergeant claims that when the current board is gone everything will change. Although that would be nice, given the candidates, I don’t think so. To wit;

    This is Thomas J Buonomo;

    tj-buonomo

    That’s from a picture I took of him when I met him last March. In fact, I talked to him for about an hour during my long lunch. The first thing he remembered about me was the post I did earlier in the month entitled “Safe enough for ya now, TJ?” in which I chided him for avoiding duty in Iraq when there was a war, but venturing to Iraq now that the surge worked. He didn’t like the post much, I guess.

    TSO wrote about TJ in April of last year, while he was still at The Sniper, so I won’t rehash that whole thing about him going to the Air Force Academy and then getting booted from the Army for advocating then-VP Cheney’s impeachment. But it is germane to this application. In his qualifications, Buonomo writes;

    35D All Source Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army; 2LT; 14 Months Active Duty Army; 5 Years, 14 Months Total Time In Service

    How many officers include their service academy or ROTC time in computing their military service? Yeah, TJ, you have 14 months of service time. Most of that was in your Officer Basic Course (18 weeks, I think).

    When asked how he would improve the IVAW, his answer was;

    Nuance, in the way we express ourselves through public statements and through action in the street, is the key to credibility and relevance. We have to keep up with what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and tailor our messaging accordingly.

    But, in his “Candidate’s Statement” his views were a bit less “nuanced”;

    …my proposed mission objectives would include the prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, starting with former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

    In fact, I can’t think of anything more old-anced. He left out the “no war for oil” line. Oh, wait;

    …my proposed mission objectives would include pressuring the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress to exercise rigorous oversight over U.S. oil companies in order to safeguard against a long term economic occupation of Iraq.

    Congress does such a good job with “oversight”, I’m sure they could drive Iraq’s oil industry into the ground in no time. Especially, with unicorn poop as a cleaner, more abundant fuel source right around the next corner.

    Gotta get in a plug for the ISO;

    …my third proposed objective would be to pressure the Obama administration’s State Department to unequivocally champion workers’ rights in Iraq in accordance with standards established by the International Labor Organization.

    So we’re not supposed to interfere with foreign nations’ internal issues – unless it’s in support of organizing them into a cool socialist organization. I get it now.

    And since Buonomo isn’t a combat veteran, he’s all for letting other non-veterans into the IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR;

    I am in support of expanding IVAW’s membership to include Foreign Service and Intelligence Community veterans who have served since September 11, 2001 because I believe that it is essential for us to have an integrated understanding of the military, economic, and political facets of the occupation.

    So much for being legitimate Veteran Service Organization. They’ve had a hard enough time verifying their membership’s qualifications. Can you imagine how many “former CIA agents” who were “black ops” with “classified records” they’d have lined up to join?

    He does reveal one tasty tidbit – out of the 1700 members of IVAW, only 1300 of them have been verified. That means I have to root out 400 prospective phonies.

    What I remember most about my conversation with Buonomo is that he talks so slow and he really has no point. At the time I wrote; “I tried to have a discussion with him, but he talks so slow that’s it’s just irritating. He kept saying “Let me finish” but he never does.”

    So, do you folks at IVAW want yet another deep thinker who hasn’t served in the military outside of the United States representing your interests even though he doesn’t have a clue what you’ve experienced? One who counts his college time as military service? One who thinks that prosecuting what he defines as “war criminals” is more important that reaching out to veterans and helping them?

    Clearly, Buonomo is more interested in being involved in activist activities than helping the membership. At what point do you get past the “Against the War” part and start focusing on the “Iraq Veterans” part? And which part do you think is most important to TJ Buonomo?

  • Everyone comes to TAH; the Andre Shepherd version

    Yes, everyone comes to This Ain’t Hell sooner or later. Everyone we’ve written about has eventually had someone who knew them “back when” come forward and tell us their back story. Today we feature a tale about Andre Shepherd, the soldier who went AWOL in Europe and is applying for refugee status to avoid doing his jail time. In fact, we expected the Germans to arrive at decision last month about him.

    But here’s the real Andre Shepherd from someone who knew him. He came by here yesterday and left a comment. I contacted him last night and asked him if he could expand his thoughts and here they are;

    Wowwwww, I mean wowwww… ok I have to say a few words now…

    My name is Joe, I was born in Torrance California and moved to Kent Ohio in July of 1999. What you don’t know is Andre Shepherd was one of my first friends when I moved to Ohio met him in 2000 . He was my manager at McDonalds at Kent State University. The guy was pretty cool he was into video games, movies – he was a geek like myself.

    In 2000 Dres roomate was moving out of his place and I was living with my then girlfriend in a nice 1 bedroom apartment. He came to me and asked if we could move into his place. He didn’t want to leave his lease, So i talked my gf into doing it I trusted Dre as he was a good friend so my girlfriend did as well. We move in with him everything is going fine for about 6 months. One day Dre comes home and tells us he got fired from McDonalds. I;d get home from working a 8 hour day and he’s playing my Dreamcast.

    At first, whatever, he just lost his job but it kept going on and on I’d get home he’s always in the same spot im like man you need to go out and look for a job. He tells me I did look I just got back just running me lines of bullshit. He never wanted to go back to fast food but I told him I could see if I could get him into Burger King he had plenty of experience. Didn’t take very long and Burger king hired him on the spot as a shift manager, he trained for a few months and was a assistant manager making salary.

    Everything was fine till around October. He decided to quit the job he was done with fast food and all the drama. He left one day and never came back. Andre flat out left me and my girlfriend to pick up the slack 6 months he was gone. Daily I would get home and there would be 50 messages on the answering machine of people trying to reach Dre. The phone would ring off the hook and we would tell the bill collectors no we have not seen him, sometimes the bill collectors would tell us we were lying and that he was home and we were trying to hide them.

    We would get knocks at the door of people trying to find him so they could start repossessing things of his. My girlfriend maxed out 2 credit cards and we were 3500+ in the hole having to pay his half of the rent, we tried to get out of the lease but they said tough shit pay us. I was sitting there playing my Dreamcast and in walks Dre after 6 months no calls no one knows where the hell he was.

    I was livid I let out all I had on my mind. He apologized but that was not good enough. My then girlfriend told me how she lost respect for me and lost all trust cause it was my fault I told her we would be ok moving with Dre he had a job, well, wow, did that all hit me in the face.

    So after I cooled down he told me how he got this job selling these awesome Kirby vacuum cleaners. He tried to sell one of these Kirby vacuums they’re like 2 grand and I couldn’t believe it. He made this sales pitch, granted he did a good job showed us how this vacuumed could do all these things – it was impressive. We told him “hell no” we’re not gonna buy this and he got pissed at us for not doing so, how can we afford a vacuum cleaner at this point when were so far in the hole?

    The point I’m making here is the guy ran away from everything just as I’m finding out now he ran from the Army and is banned from the USA. WOW, really? I know more about the dude being his friend for 5 years. The dude was a Republican would never join the military unless he had to for financial obligations. Let me tell you when I sit and read all this stuff he makes him self out like some hero. Truth be told he’s doing what he always had run from everything, run from his job, run from his friends. He lived in his car the 6 months he was gone. His bills were piling up so high you couldn’t see half of his door to his room, the door is almost 7 feet tall.

    He owes me almost $3500 in bills we had to pay for his lease obligation , we were paying his half of his rent with credit cards till they maxed out. He owes another friend $2k for buying his Dodge Intrepid at the time he had a job at Burger King and thought he was gonna get paid back. Dre, as far as a person goes, is the nicest person and caring person you would ever meet. His obligations however are a mess and anytime something would come up the first thing he would do is run from them like he did to us. His bills got so bad, his life got so bad having to live in his car he didn’t have a choice.

    Joining the Army would pay his bills. Now I’m not saying he’s not fighting for a good cause, i believe he is doing something he strongly believes in, he thinks the Iraq war is pointless and, yes, I agree it is pointless and its a war that will never end. But when you sign up for the army or anything you are committed to do whatever is asked from his country.

    He swore an oath, and he ran. Not only did he run but he ran during a war which is the death penalty in the USA he is a traitor to our people. The problem is he always thinks about him self but there is gonna be more long term impact on what he’s doing with this thing in Germany. If they grant him amnesty you are gonna see thousands of people trying to do the same thing he’s doing and that is not right.

  • Mejia on Carl Webb

    Some of you may remember the investigation we did on Carl Webb a month-and-a-half ago. Webb made several comments on the internet that urged members of the military to sabotage equipment and otherwise disrupt military operations while stationed in Iraq. We had Webb’s military records and proved that he wasn’t eligible for membership in IVAW. That post has yet to be disputed with any evidence to the contrary.

    Webb has become a point of contention among members of the IVAW for quite sometime because some members of the IVAW don’t like being associated with other members who advocate killing US troops. The latest to resign because of Webb, is Jeff Peskoff, a member of this forum.

    Since the Board of Directors of the IVAW has been hesitant about doing anything about a rogue member advocating treason and sabotage from the safety of his keyboard in Austin, TX, Peskoff finally got a statement last night on Facebook from Camilo Mejia, IVAW’s Chairman of the Board of Directors. That statement follows;
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  • 9-12 candidate Kokesh

    I got simultaneous emails from Coby Dillard and Chris Hill this morning about one of the newest “9-12 candidates”. 9/12.org was apparently founded to highlight the candidacy of potential politicians who share their values and principles. Why they let this guy in is beyond me;

    kokesh-9-12

    If you go to the page wherein this organization endorses Kokesh, it gives a brief biography – but somehow, between his honorable discharge in 2006 and his candidacy for Congress, the details get a little thin. Details like his General Dischage, arrests for trespassing, arrest for failing to obey a police officer, arrest for illegally putting up posters on Federal property, putting up bogus fliers trying to frame a conservative student group around the GWU campus. Little things like that. It’s all summed up in these lines;

    Driven by a deep intolerance for injustice, Adam has also done extensive work to alleviate, minimize, and prevent the human suffering that inevitably arises from forceful government intervention.

    In addition to addressing the kind of suffering he experienced first-hand in Fallujah, he has organized to help veterans struggling with PTSD, railed against 4th Amendment violations, and stood up against the Federal Reserve.

    Yeah, he helped veterans struggling with PTSD – with his prescription of xanax and gin. And storing his urine in the fridge at the IVAW Treehouse. Oh, it doesn’t mention Kokesh’s membership in IVAW at all. I wonder why?

    Apparently, this 9-12 organization doesn’t screen the candidates they support very well. I’d find it hard to support any of their candidates based on this one endorsement. Two minutes of searching this blog with Kokesh’s name would turn up enough evidence to drop him from their rolls.

  • Christians for Peace march in Killeen

    kdh-code-pink

    An article in the Killeen Daily Herald reports that a bunch of hippies from Austin and Waco descended upon Fort Hood and Killeen Texas this weekend. Of course, they began their silent march at the IVAW “Under the Hood” cafe. I don’t believe that a more naive bunch of people exist. It sounds to me like they think we’re the only people fighting this war;

    “Our goal is to establish peace and end this war,” [Ray Johnson, retired chaplain] said. “The Creator has better things in store for this nation.”

    The article doesn’t mention what this Ray Johnson was chaplain of, but they sure make it sound like he was in the military don’t they?

    “Our silent march and vigil is not about ‘We,’ the good people, against ‘Them,’ the bad people. On the contrary, those of us here today must have a deep awareness that the soldiers at Fort Hood are people caught in the same trap of war making that we are. They want to earn money to care for their families. They work for their own dignity and self-respect. They work because they love their fellow human beings, their country, their God. The unspeakable tragedy is that their hard work is used to kill the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

    Throwing in the class warfare card is almost un-Christian, ain’t it?

    Of course, it was a star studded event;

    Victor Agosto, currently facing charges for refusal to go to Afghanistan, joined the group to march for peace. Agosto’s summary court-martial is scheduled for next week. After serving his sentence, he said he would probably be chaptered out of service. He has been in the Army for four years.

    So we’ll be looking for accounts of Victor’s court martial this week.

    But these “Christians for Peace” are new to me, so I had to look them up on the internet. There’s not much about them, really. No information on who supports them (although in the KDH article it mentioned some of them were also members of Code Pink) and their “About” page is pretty sparse. But here’s one little naive nugget to take with you;

    Despite our exorbitant defense budget, we still feel insecure and threatened by a poor and improvised al-Qaida, so we build more systems, even a missile defense system which repeatedly fails.

    I’m pretty sure the missile defense system isn’t intended to defend against al Qaeda, but there are a few countries that we do need to defend against. And calling al Qaeda “poor and impoverished” doesn’t make them any less dangerous or any more endearing.

    Jesus teaches us to love our enemies (Matt 5:43-44), to forgive those who sin against us (Matt 18:21-22), and to deny ourselves, carry our cross, and follow him.

    We believe that war is immoral. The idea that we can kill, we can choose who will live and who will die, to protect our way of life is not in accordance with Jesus’ teachings and life example. The powers of this world use war today, but as Christians our battle is not against flesh and blood, (not against other people) but against these powers (Eph 6:12). As Christians, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Cor 10:3-4).

    I’m pretty sure than Jesus didn’t want us to march like lambs to the slaughter, though. But, like I said, some of these folks are in with Code Pink, and we know their agenda is just to make more money and be obnoxious. These Christians for Peace are cut from the same cloth. Clearly, their message if you look at their website, is based in the class warfare message – we’re all victims of greed and materialism. The US spends money on defense when it could be spent on unicorn farms, rainbow development and Skittles gardens.

    If I were a church-going Christian, I’d be angry, for the same reason I’m angry at Veterans for Peace. Their group’s name insinuates that unless you belong to the group you are “for War”. We all want peace – it’s just that some of us have our feet on the ground. I wonder how much worshiping of Christ and spreading his teachings will get done if the Islamists get their way with us.

  • Bacon resigns as IVAW ED

    We got word today that Alex Bacon, the Executive Director of the IVAW, resigned his position today due to health reasons.

    Dear members of IVAW,

    We regret to inform you that our Executive Director, Alex Bacon, resigned early yesterday due to personal health issues. We wish him a full recovery and look forward to him once again becoming active with IVAW.

    The Board of Directors had a call last night where we discussed this issue (among other issues facing the organization) and the following decisions were made:

    1- Aaron Hughes (the Organizing Team Leader) will act as the point of contact between the Board and the staff while there is no ED in the office.

    2- Wes Davey (the Board Treasurer) will be going to Philadelphia, on Monday 20 July 09, to act as the interim ED until a new ED is hired.

    3- The Board will hire a full time ED to replace Alex. At this point we are inclined to hire the “runner up” for the job as we had an exhaustive process a mere 3 months ago. That being said, we will be negotiating with this person over the next week or so and will update you accordingly.

    4- This new ED will work with Wes (on site) and Alex (via phone and email) to transition into the position full time.

    The Board, staff, and members are working very hard on the convention and we are still planing on a successful convention that once again brings together members of IVAW to collectively move forward as an organization and a movement.

    We will update you as soon as we are ready to take our next step. Please feel free to send questions to Board@ivaw.org.

    In Solidarity

    Board of Directors
    Iraq Veterans Against the war

    Here at TAH, we hope that Alex has a speedy and complete recovery.

    For those of you who don’t know Alex Bacon, he went AWOL from the Coast Guard while he was stationed in Honolulu, HI. In his own words from his IVAW profile;

    I grew up in the Unitarian Church and had some illusion that I was going to make the military more humane by joining. What I didn’t realize was that you don’t change the military, the military changes you. I was disappointed in our mission, which was really focused on protecting American fisheries and seemed to have very little to do with lifesaving. I was also surprised by the dehumanization of other people, including fellow shipmates that I saw. I realized fairly quickly that I had made a mistake, and as impulsively as I joined the Coast Guard I went AWOL.

    No, really, that’s what it says. I don’t think I could make the story any funnier.

    So who is going to be the next person to take over IVAW? Well, I’m waiting on the answer to that one from one of my countless moles, but one person told me that the only two others who applied for the position were Matthis Chiroux and Adrienne Kinne. Kinne’s profile says she “served stateside in direct support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a voice interceptor.”

    Kinne is touted as a “whistleblower” because she told the press (Amy Goodman from Democracy Now) that the Palestine Hotel, which housed journalists, was on the target list for the initial bombing of Baghdad in 2003. We didn’t strike the Palestine Hotel, it was merely on a target list but somehow it’s important. it’s another of those stories that go no where.

    According to my source in IVAW, Kinne is a hardcore member of the International Socialist Organization. My source also tells me that Chiroux and Kinne both withdrew their applications to be ED so we’ll have to wait to find out whether the Board decides to perpetuate it’s image as an anti-war organization or a veterans’ organization.

    Oh yeah, Carl Webb wrote yesterday that he’s to blame for the slim pickin’s for a new ED who might actually be a veteran of the Iraq War;
    webb-cheeks